Curse

Deviant · Aug 02, 2005, 08:30 AM // 08:30

I very rarely start my own topics, but I figured I'd give it a whirl so my ideas doesn't get lost in the flood. The way I figure, a lot of people waited months, months, and more months waiting for this game to be released. However, it seems like quite a few people are willing to write it off in only three. I think there are problems, but I for one am willing to give them a bit longer to address issues in the game that really only became prevelant on release.

I did want to offer a couple problems, and potential solutions to consider. The two main issues I have both relate to grind.

1) PvE Grind - 20k per skill point seems a bit much. I would say 10k is probably a better option (I've heard 3k, but that seems a bit low). Also, one thing another guildmate mentioned, is that they really wish unlocked skills were shared between all PvE characters similar to how they are shared to your PvP. This would allow a PvE character to have the ability to be competative with a PvP as far as what's available to them after considerable effort (as PvE is somewhat geared towards) without having to maintain several accounts just to be able to create one PvP.

2) PvP Grind - I definitely think faction points need to be increased. However, I think there's opportunity to have other "unlock" potentional. For instance, in Arena battles if you win, you randomly unlock a skill your opponent team is running. If you already have the skill unlocked, you get maybe 1k experience. You might add in some bonus possibility with consecutive wins.

Another possibility is a "grab bag" between the opponent team. Each player would have a list of skills to choose from the opponent (1 per player). So, in 4vs4, there would be 4 to choose from (randomly have a chance for an elite), and 8vs8 would have 8. I see it as kind of a "bonus" to the winning team.

If the first option, PvE Grind, was implemented, I would almost say I see no detraction from UAS being available from PvP players as PvE players would have the avenue for equality with effort. Honestly though, I see UAS as a band-aid rather than a solution. Overall, I think there is definitely a reward system that can be put in place or altered to accommodate the cynics.

A few other suggestions to help improve gameplay:

* For the radar, I'd LOVE to see a line-of-sight consideration. This would add a lot more tactics to the way you play, and mystery to where the enemies are in PvE (assuming you haven't memorized it, which I do see as a seperate issue).

* Improve the reward for bonus missions. I might even think that there could be progressive bonuses. For instance, you might put in 3 or 4 different types of bonus missions available to players once the previous one has been beaten. With each iteration, the difficulty could be increased to maintain the challenge. This way, you don't have to keep pushing more missions out. Assuming you have an interface for adding quests, the rest would seem to be relatively easy to implement in a short duration. The highest iteration available would be based on the lowest completed by the group.

* Replayability for PvE missions is a big problem. The above solution definitely helps, but I would like to see more "choose your own adventure" in the future expansions and updates. The analogy I'll use is pathing. Initially, pathing was very strict and there was really only one way to complete a mission. However, you expanded it out to allow a lot more free reign in the completion of missions. I think something similar could be done in the area of what role you fill as a player. For instance, what if I don't want to join the Rurik?

The obvious advantage is that you have a reason to create another character besides just unlocking skills or PvP or wanting to play a different primary.

* What about alliances with other guilds? I know that the inactivity by other members in a given guild has become a problem. What if you could create an alliance for the aspect of cooperative gameplay to see who else is on. Most of this would be geared towards non-GvsG battles, but the opportunity is there for more wide-scale battles. For instance, you could team up for 3vs3 alliance battles possibly even using the same GvG maps. To me this is a great option, because it begins to fit the "tactical" role I've always wanted GuildWars to fill. What I mean is that you never really see the team of 8 seperate. If you send only 4, odds are you're going to get toasted. With 3 teams attacking and defending, AoE spells become more beneficial, as is potential sneak attacks or greater defensibility. I really don't see this as an something very easily abused, because Monks might only be allowed to heal their own team. They just can't damage their allies.

In conclusion, all of these solutions are relatively easy to implement with the current system; only a few minor modifications. It doesn't require any huge changes (asside from the alliance suggestion of course). The end goal is to make it more fun and challenging on a repetative basis without it feeling just that .. repetative.

Takkun · Aug 02, 2005, 08:34 AM // 08:34

Line of Sight eh?

Reminds me of Metal Gear Solid.... only thing is that it is impossible to make tactics on this since computers arent the same as real poeple who try to look everywhere at once and are continuously changing their camera angles.

As for the faction and gaining more skill points for less xp... your just raising a issue which has already been beaten to death on every guildwars fansite forum.

Deviant · Aug 02, 2005, 08:35 AM // 08:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Takkun

Line of Sight eh?

Reminds me of Metal Gear Solid.... only thing is that it is impossible to make tactics on this since computers arent the same as real poeple who try to look everywhere at once and are continuously changing their camera angles.

I indicated line-of-sight on the radar. In other words, the dots for your opponents would not appear unless it was visible from your characters current position. Obviously, there would be some basic determination for this.

Thanas · Aug 02, 2005, 08:40 AM // 08:40

Just a quick comment. I really like the idea of teaming up in PvP. That way Europe could ally against Korea!!! But problems I forsee is that PvP is random teams. Which will put other teams at disadvantage, if say its 1 Korean team vs 5 European teams.

Takkun · Aug 02, 2005, 08:42 AM // 08:42

ooh i understand what your saying now, sorry its a lil late over here..

Thats actually a good idea. I have always hated being noticed doing something like ganking the build lord only because i have been noticed on the compass as if I had some sort of tracking tag clipped onto my ear.

Zeru · Aug 02, 2005, 09:06 AM // 09:06

Minor changes might've been nice a few months ago but now they need to implement stuff decisive and fast or they will lose those who stayed behind to give it one last try to make things better.

Faction needs to either extremely easy to get or rewards extremely easy to purchase (skills especially). It needs to be geared towards casual players as well, 2xp per kill simply isn't enough when these players generally can't kill even a single person in half their forays. Perhaps 50-100 for beating the unworthy group and 50-100 for each battle you participate in. These are the people who don't have the skills/runes to play more than 1 class and sometimes not even that effectively. They need attention too. Skill Point purchases with faction should be very low; 100 seems reasonable. Runes/Mods slightly more as you won't need to purchase them as much en mass. For xp per skill point...frankly I'd say 5k once you ascend and 1k once you beat Hells Precipice. Why shouldn't they be that low? The only plausible argument against that I can see is to make them lower/easier. A complete unlock for beating hells precipice isn't a terrible idea either. People go through the full pve experience once, never have to do it again if they don't want to, and they're set for pvp.

Besides unlocking, the other issue that remains is balance and state of gameplay.

-Ladder sucks because it takes forever to find a match; a ladder wipe and/or wider matching system (it should not take time waiting to open up a wider margin of ranking to match up with) would help overall. Making skill acquirement easier will also benefit this, because more teams will be willing to gvg if they can make a solid build.
-Tombs sucks because there so few potential builds to run because of broken skills; fertile affecting spirits, natures renewal in general, ether renewal, and the retarded nature of the hall of heroes. It also takes forever to get a group going because you have to either be content with a shoddy build or you have to keep switching people around if they haven't unlocked skill x etc.
-Arena sucks because the competition is sad.

Skill balance regarding fertile/renewal needs to be done immediately; other balance can wait but these two skills are what is plaguing tombs so badly. Unlocking acquisition also needs to be done as soon as humanly possible or they will lose what's left of the devoted pvpers (those who tried to keep the pvp alive rather than just give up). If you don't have the hardcore pvp community, the longetivity of your game decreases a huge amount without enormous effort put in.

For the Pvers, there doesn't need to be that much done immediately. These people will more than likely be interested in the expansion (at least a lot more than the pvpers who are leaving in droves). The summer update will help after the immediate pvp issues are addressed and will keep the casual player here for a little while longer.

I don't know, with so little improvement so far and a lot of steps backward, I can't see good things ahead. All we can do is to hope, but even hope seems awfully weak just looking at what has happened so far.